Presby-Musings

  Condemned as a traitor for his opposition to Hitler, Father Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest, wrote an Advent sermon in a Nazi prison shortly before he was hanged in 1945.  In this sermon, he addressed the need to faithfully bear witness to the transforming and radical power of the love of God, who became one of us in Jesus to show us for all time what God is really like.  Delp was writing in perhaps the most miserable circumstances about the glory and hope found in Advent if we actively join God in God's restorative work in the world.  Here is a line from his Advent sermon that absolutely lit me on fire:  In the bitterness of awakening, in the helplessness of "coming to," in the wretchedness of realizing our limitations, the golden threads that pass between heaven and earth in these times reach us.  These golden threads give the world a taste of the abundance it can have.   Delp had a front-row seat to the rise of the Nazis in Germany both before and du...

  To begin with, this Devo's origins are all due to bad plumbing and a massive hole outside my office door that had to be dug to repair it.  A couple of months ago, the toilet in our church office ceased to work. Upon inspection, the plumber we called to investigate began pulling up tree roots as he sought to unclog everything.  Apparently, the sub-par pipe situation below ground had finally given way, and things broke apart, so a re-route was needed, which included a ton of digging and the destruction of part of the sidewalk.   Several weeks and a few bids later, we hired a plumbing specialist to rectify the situation, and they got to work by first jackhammering the sidewalk and breaking apart a ton of rock below the ground.  All of this occurred outside my office door, which made for some unpleasant and teeth-jarring experiences as I tried in vain to work while it was happening.  But after all was said and done, the repairs were made, new cement was ...

During one of my "rabbit hole" explorations on a topic for a sermon recently, I got to reading some quotes by the late Rich Mullins.   Mullins was an aclaimed Christian musical artist in the late 80s and early 90s, who wrote songs like, "Awesome God," "My Deliverer," "Hold Me Jesus," and "Creed," all of which won multiple awards.  But Mullins withdrew from the mainstream Contemporary Christian Music industry late in his career, and his music and writing took on a decidedly different kind of tone.  He was highly critical of what had become of Evangelical Christianity, and was a kind of prophet who began to foresee how the marriage between Evangelicals and right wing politics could lead to a kind of Christianity that didn't seem to follow Jesus.  Mullins died in a car crash in 1997, and at his memorial Amy Grant described him as the "uneasy conscience of Christian music."   One of Mullins' prescient quotes about the stat...

In his translation of selected works from the wisdom of Chuang Tzu, the late Christian mystic and theologian Thomas Merton included this poem, which I was struck by and knew I'd write about one day.   The Kingly Man realizes, this hides it in his heart,  Grows boundless, wide-minded, draws all to himself. And so he lets the gold lie hidden in the mountain,  Leaves the pearl lying in the deep.  Goods and possessions are no gain in his eyes.  He stays far from wealth and honor.  Long life is no ground for joy, nor early death for sorrow.  Success is not for him to be proud of, failure is no shame.  Had he all the world's power he would not hold it as his own.  If he conquered everything he would not take it to himself.  His glory is in knowing that all things come together as One,  And life and death are equal.  Chuang Tzu's poem was written in the 4th century BCE, hence the non-inclusive gender references, but you get the p...

I've been thinking a lot lately about the creative process and how it is so inextricably connected to Spirit.  These things go through my head during the wee hours, and lately more so, since I've been having trouble falling asleep until the wee hours.  Maybe it's because I'm now old enough to apply for my AARP card or because of too many sweets before bed, but sleep seems to be eluding me on some nights, and then I'm left with my thoughts.  This is alright because most of those thoughts are fleshed out here, and my thoughts about creativity and Spirit are among them.  You see, I believe that the Holy Spirit (the third "person" in the Christian Trinity) has a specific role within the godhead, and that role is essentially the energy that binds all of Creation together.  Every bit of matter in the universe is made up of energy, and even what appears to be solid--isn't.  There is a universe in the desktop I'm typing on right now.  Infinite space exists...

This Sunday is the first Sunday in the season of Advent. Advent means “expectation.”  For many, this marks the beginning of the Church calendar, the beginning of our shared story as Christians.  I once read an article by Conrad Hoover on Advent, and he wrote that for the Church, “the new year is not marked by drunken and numbing merrymaking on December 31, but rather by joyful anticipation and urgent exhortation to stay awake and be watchful on the 1st Sunday of Advent.”  But if those of us who call ourselves Christians should be waiting in expectation during the season of Advent, what are we expecting? If we are called to be awake and watchful on the 1st Sunday of Advent, what do we hope to see or experience? Advent - A Season of Expectation, but also of Readiness The texts we’ll be studying for the next few weeks will help us prepare for the change and transformation in the world we all long for.  For most Christians, we would offer up some sort of Sunday school, s...

There's not enough time.  That's what most of us say to ourselves when we contemplate all that must get done in the ever-increasing passing of our days.   I've even said during the brief seasons that I have to try and relax, write, think, and contemplate the state of my faith, God, the universe, and everything.  There's not enough time.   And when it comes to actually allowing ourselves to stop, grow silent, and allow ourselves a moment or two of quiet reflection, prayer, or meditation, there's never enough time, is there?  Even when we do manage to carve out some moments to attempt reflection, rest, prayer, and the like, we find that the demands of the noisy world around us creep in and take over.  Joan Chittister had this to say about this phenomenon in our current culture:  Sinking down into the self where the Spirit resides and the waters run deep is close to impossible in a culture built on noise and talk and information and advertisemen...